Blended Course Design Resources

Blended Learning

Blended courses are classes where a significant portion of the traditional face-to-face instruction is replaced by web-based online learning and/or other out-of-classroom learning. At YSU, we use the words "blended" and "hybrid" interchangeably. All of YSU's new modalities (Agile-Hybrid, Virtual Classroom, and Online-Live) are blended modalities. Blended courses reduce in-class meetings and replace instructional time with online, interactive learning activity.

Resources

Blended course design

• The Blended Course Design Workbook by Katheryn Linder is a quick read with space for faculty to think through using instructional time in a hybrid environment. 

• The Blended Learning Toolkit: an open-source curriculum from the University of Central Florida.

• Emmanuel College’s Essentials of Blended Learning Course Design: this is a good option for stepping through the course redesign process. 

• Penn State Hybrid Learning Guide: several useful resources including an instructional activities time estimate guide (for determining if there is enough/too much content)

• Literature Review on Hybrid/Blended Learning by Yiran Zhao and Lori Breslow from August 2013.  

   

• Design and Resources for Hybrid Courses, from Oregon State University, has a large collection of resources on hybrid teaching and course design 

BLENDED COURSE QUALITY ASSURANCE

• ITL Hybrid Course Quality Checklist
• Blended Course Implementation Checklist - (from UCF’s BlendKit)—a great resource that goes through not just design elements but also logistics, technology checks, etc.

• Blended Course Peer Review Form (from UCF’s BlendKit)—more course design-focused, and designed for peer review use

• Quality Learning and Teaching Evaluation Instrument (from CSU)—57 items across 10 standard areas for online, blended, and flipped courses

• Quality Matters Rubric

Flipped classrooms

• How to implement a Flipped Classroom
• The Flipped Classroom: How to Spend Class Time from the Faculty Innovation Center (University of Texas at Austin) 
• No, You Do Not Need to Use Video in Flipped Learning (and five alternatives) by Robert Talbert (Grand Valley State University) 
• Ed Tech Tools for Flipped  and Online Classrooms

Instructional strategies

• William Horton’s Absorb, Do, Connect Activities
• Identify Appropriate Instructional Strategies from the Eberly Center (Carnegie Mellon University 
• Online Instructional Activities Index by the Illinois Online Network (University of Illinois-Springfield) 
• Glossary of Instructional Strategies by Kelly Jo Rowan 

OTHER RESOURCES

• ACUE videos on good online design principles are great! They have some really short videos in their Online Teaching Toolkit and a series of webinar recordings (under “wrap up”) that outlines online design principles. These are focused on online teaching but would be useful for anyone doing hybrid. 
• Hy-Flex: Virtual Campus classes are based on the hyflex model (only without the same level of student choice, due to Covid). Hybrid-Flexible Course Design is a book by its creator Brien Beatty. Fully implementing the model may be beyond the interest of most faculty, but some may be interested in the principles and insights. 

Blended Course Design (In a Hurry) Workshop

Participants will learn a backward design approach and instructional strategies that will help faculty planning new fall modalities, or as a backup plan for traditional courses.

• View recording (password Penguin1)
• Download the workshop slides
• Download the workshop walkthrough exercise